Innovation Finance and Technology Transfer: Funding Proof-of-Concept

Turning promising research into a viable product takes more than a strong idea. In Innovation Finance and Technology Transfer: Funding Proof-of-Concept, Andrea Alunni examines the funding and management decisions that can help bridge the distance between academic discovery and commercial application.

Drawing on 15 years of intellectual-property portfolio management at Oxford University Innovation, the book focuses on proof-of-concept (POC) funding: the support that can help test, prototype, or demonstrate an idea before the next investment or commercialization decision.

How university research moves toward application

Alunni places proof-of-concept funding within the wider technology-transfer process. The book considers the people and support services involved in connecting university research with business, including the work of technology transfer managers and the role of an entrepreneurial university.

Inside Oxford’s proof-of-concept process

A central section examines technology-transfer support services at Oxford and the University of Oxford TTO’s approach to POC funding. Readers interested in the practical side of the subject will find coverage of the funding process and the ways POC investment is assessed and managed.

What the investment portfolio can show

The book also analyzes Oxford’s POC investment portfolio, using its experience to explore whether a well-managed fund can produce positive financial results. The analysis gives the discussion a concrete institutional setting rather than treating innovation finance only as an abstract policy question.

For practitioners, researchers, and students

This book will be relevant to technology-transfer practitioners, investment professionals, and readers working in innovation policy. It may also suit IP scholars, business-school and social-science students, and others interested in how research institutions support the development and commercialization of intellectual property.